Injury updates

DUANER SANCHEZ: He said he’s fine, meaning no soreness, but if he can’t go back-to-back, his arm strength isn’t there. Sanchez has backed off comments saying he’ll be ready Opening Day. Look for him to open season on DL.

ORLANDO HERNANDEZ: He’s still working on new wind-up, but there’s no zip on his pitches. Mets say he’s doing fine, but he’s not ready.

RUBEN GOTAY: Is participating in drills and not as gimpy. Wouldn’t surprise me if he opens on DL, also.

LUIS CASTILLO: He’s moved better. He’s not going to be the steal threat he once was. They are going to regret this contract.

CARLOS BELTRAN: Is improved, but not 100 percent. Still working on building up the left knee.

John Delcos enters his third season covering the Mets for The Journal News after eight seasons on the Yankees beat. Prior to coming to New York, John covered the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Indians.

The Mets are going to regret the Castillo contrac? I hope you are wrong, John, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Third base was always a Bermuda Triangle before David Wright but second isn’t a lot better. Ron Hunt started strong but got hurt after 2 years and was traded. Ken Boswell was mediocre. Felix Millan was pretty good but got body slammed by Ed Ott. Wally Backman was a useful platoon player, the Mets got three pitching prospects who they raved about but newer made it. Gregg Jeffries was a disaster. Wish I could include Juan Samuel but he misplayed center. Carlos Baerga flopped horribly while the guy we traded away, Jeff Kent, is still playing (not sure if he would have made it in New York. His main disasters came from making errors at third and not hitting because of it). Edgardo Alfonso was the best player in New York in 2000, he went downhill fast.
“Future Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar” was Carlos Baerga The Next Generation.

Yeah I think giving Castillo and his gimpy knees a 4 year deal is going to be tough to justify, I really don’t know what Omar was thinking with the length of the contract. I know our farm system is pretty weak after the Santana deal, but I would have tried to acquire Brian Roberts from the Orioles or even signed David Eckstein instead of Castillo.

John, I agree that Castillo’s contract may look like a bad investment 2 years from now, if not sooner. But as for regret? It depends how you look at it.

Signing Castillo could have been part of the lure that got Santana to the Mets. Reportedly the Mets were #1 on his list and he told the Twins that. Maybe Bill Smith was willing to take Santana’s wishes into consideration when he turned down the Red Sox’ offer. And while Santana may have come to the Mets without Castillo, perhaps his presence also helped grease the skids in terms of the final contract negotiations which went down to the wire. Maybe Santana might not have been so willing to compromise if he hadn’t been so amenable to being a Met.

Reportedly, Castillo also talked up the Mets to Santana starting the very day he was traded. So look at his contract as sort of a finder’s fee!

Castillo’s contract isn’t that bad either. I think he’ll be productive at least through 2009, so what you’re talking about is perhaps $12 million at most wasted. If the Mets win a WS in the next 2 years, it will have been totally worth it.

As for Eckstein, I remember when they actually met with him. Reportedly he was not only asking for more money than what Castillo got, but he wasn’t too receptive to switching to 2nd either. I think he was a long shot at best.

Although it is possible that Castillo’s contract is one yr too long, there were other teams interested in him. The Mets had to have somebody play 2B and I’ll ask who you would have them have there?

Eckstein? He wanted more $$. Bring back KazMat? Gotay? I know there alot of people are enamored w/him but his defense is poor and his base running leaves alot to be desired. Make a trade? Mets were lucky to have enough to get Santana.

I get a little tired of people complaining but not offering alternatives.

To Dan and JK: As far as regret, it was meant under this context. They have him for four years. On the plus side, if he’s healthy they don’t have to worry about second base for awhile. On the down side, he’s 32 and has bad knees. Four years might have been long. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t like odds of playing out the contract healthy.-JD

It was reported that Astros among others were willing to give Castillo at least 3 yrs. So if Mets did not give that 4th yr, then maybe Gotay would have had to be there b/c it sure seemed like no one else was available.

Mike C., i’m not understand what you’re saying about, ‘what else went wrong with Delgado healing his hip”? What does that mean? He has the hip impingement, he took some time off, got the injection, now its feeling better. the only other thing that happened was a freak broken bat that gashed him, and he required stitches. What am I missing? Is he supposed to avoid that broken bat? Is that a sign of weakness on his part, that he couldn’t avoid it? Would another player have avoided it? I’m confused…

also, Castillo’s contract is not that horrible. I agree it may be too long. That 4th year might not work out, who knows, maybe not the 3rd. But it’s not a lot of money, 6 mill per basically. That’s a tradable contract, and it’s also something the Mets could eat if Castillo truly becomes someone who can’t get it done anymore. However, I like him for this year and next. Doesn’t have the speed he once had, but he still knows how to use the speed he does have, and no one hangs in on a double play like he does, he’s just great at the turning the DP. Range isn’t what it was, but he’s still more than adequate, and his hitting is what it is, its prefect for our #2 spot, he has plate discipline, will take pitches for Reyes. If we had to outbid someone for his services, which I think we did with Houston offering 3 years, then I’m glad we did.

keith, who would play 2B then? And it was reported that castillo was courted by other teams for 3 yr deals.

scott, this is where I think people get to Met-centric. You are exactly right about other teams have issues too.

The Braves, for ex, could have major ones with three SP over 35 where one was throwing 83 (Glavine) at the end of last yr, one who has a history of arm troubles (Smoltz) and one (Hampton) who has not pitched in 2 yrs whom they are counting on to give them 10+ wins (which has not been done by a SP over 35 who has missed 2 yrs since 1946).

And the Phils have old guys and hurt guys too whom they are counting on.

Well scoop, when people say Gotay is the alternative and then you say he’s not a good alternative then we can’t have a discussion. If Gotay’s d could have improved under Alomar’s guidance then in a time he’d pass Castillo whose range is decreasing…. And if Gotay turned out to be a disapointment the Mets have a bench if 2nd baseman to finish the year and you could have gone after someone next Fall, but now we have Castillo, who, don’t get me wrong, I like in the 2 hole, but I don’t see him being valuble for very long…. Fact is Omar likes veterans,. His choice. If he ever has a choice the vet gets the job. If he makes the next mistake and keeps Valentin then Gotay will be DFA’d and we’ll have no issue because he’l get picked up. I don’t think he’s gonna keep Gotay on DL for 6 months.

He had a chance to show he could field. They worked w/him to see if he could do it before they made that trade for Castillo. He was not up to the task. I like his LH bat but his defense was obviously not there.

Omar likes veterans, true. He overlooks their faults just like you like young guys and overlook theirs.

Ex. I believe you have stated your admiration for Pagan. To me he is an ok player. Pretty good LH but not RH.

I take it from your post that you feel that Gotay should have been the 2B. But he can’t hit lefties. Yet you don’t point out these faults but do so w/Church (a veteran I guess).

I don’t see Gotay as more than a spot player b/c like what you would say about Church, he does not hit lefties well.

Bottom line-not saying Castillo is something great but Gotay can’t hit lefties and his defense is lacking. Plus he made some real bonehead running mistakes. If someone else was available then we should have got him. There wasn’t anyone.

In fact, they don’t even have faith that he can be the SS backup (he has not played an inn this spring there).

He improved a lot as he played…. If he were 37 they wouldn’t have gotten Castillo….. But the point is would you want Gotay for 1 year and see how he does with Easley and Anderson as support and back-up or would you want Castillo thru 2011 And to the guy who thinks he’ll be an easy salary dump, no way…...

One year and an option for Castillo probably would’ve done everything to lure Santana in and not… you know… lock the Mets in for four years with a guy who has maybe a year and a half left in his body.

As for Delgado: the dude has been fighting off all kinds of upperbody and arm injuries over the last two years that stole his batspeed and rendered him the sloppy warning-track-power hitter he is today.

Were some of those injuries freak and outside of his control?

Sure.

But that doesn’t negate the cumulative effect of those injuries on his body.

After looking at Castillo’s stats, he has pretty much maintained his offense since 2004 (just look at Mets.com) Runs, RBIs, AVG. basically stable since FLA. days. Last ten games had an average of .364. Not to mention he does not play on that astro turf anymore (which I would presume have bad effects on the knees.) His knees also been cleaned out (which seems more of maintainance that a major repair).

A steal threat? No one expects him to be doing a lot of stealing this year. Thats why we have Reyes, Wright, (fill in the blank) who should make up for it. While four years may seem like a gamble, he is very good defensively (should not have to back that part up).

John, yeah I understand the context in which you were talking about “regret” and I agree with you there. But I think you have to look at Castillo in a broader context where he was part of the lure in getting Santana.

Of course I think Omar also believed that Castillo at least short term (maybe 2 years) would be a very solid second baseman and provide depth at that position for the Mets as well.

Yes, I do think Gotay could have done the job at 2B. This kid was a former top prospect that the Royals ruined by rushing him to the bigs. He has a sweet stroke from the left side and was only 24 years old last season. Instead of going with a guy who looked like he was starting to “get it” at the Major League level, we signed Castillo for four years. Basically, the organization decided he was never going to amount to anything but a bench player, which I think is baloney.

Was his defense lacking? Sure it was. But he is still young and athletic. Take a look at how much DWright has improved in the field. You can learn how to play better defense. Plus, the only pitcher we have who throws ground balls is Pelfrey. Every other pitcher we have is a fly ball pitcher. We would have been better served keeping Gotay at 2B and upgrading our OF defense. Remember the game Ollie started where he had Gomez – Beltran – Endy as his starting OF? He was awesome that game because he had 3 gazelles in the OF running down all the fly balls.

Again, it’s not that I necessarily have a huge problem with Castillo, because I don’t. My problem is how Minaya utilizes his assets. Why sign Castillo for four years when you have Gotay ready to step in? (Unless he helped bring Johan, then fine, you had to sign Luis.) How do you trade both Milledge and Gomez in the same off season when you know Alou isn’t going to last the year? Is there really a need for 5 2B on this team? If you’re going to bury Gotay then just deal him for a guy like Jay Payton to give us some OF depth.

As many of you know, I do like Minaya and think he’s done a fine job while he’s been here. However, he does make some curious decisions at times and has this odd habit of going overboard at times. Like last year, with Pedro, Sanchez, Padilla, and Heilman coming off surgery and some question marks in the rotation (Maine, Perez, and Pelfrey), he goes out and deals our top 4 minor league bullpen arms and Bannister, getting back only Burgos, two 6th starters, and signing Schoenweiss.

This is what I was talking about in that post a while back about Wigginton, Jacobs, etc. The Mets do not value young players unless they are superstars. If a guy looks like he is going to just be a role player, they deal him or bury him. Guys like Heath Bell or Ruben Gotay may never be all stars, but they sure as heck would provide you with some cheap talent. Plus, they have something guys like Mota, Show, and Castillo don’t have… upside.

Again, I normally defend Minaya, but it seems pretty obvious he and Willie are wary of young and unproven talent.

runnin rebel brings up an excellent point. Castillo offensively has been really solid and consistent for a long long time including last year. Actually since 2002 when he put up an OPS+ of 95. Last year his OPS+ was 96.

Castillo’s OBP was .371 with the Mets last year which is not too shabby. Wright and Alou were the only Mets with a higher OBP than .371 last year. I’m a big believer in OBP, and you’d be hard pressed to find another second baseman who was available with a higher one than that. I don’t think there was one. Eckstein in comparison had an OBP of .356. Gotay was at .351.

It just remains to be seen how he ages and how successful his knee surgery was. But because of his record and his role in getting Santana to the Mets, I think he was well worth the risk.

JK, you make a strong case for Castilo, one which I came to myself when they signed him. However, don’t you think Minaya would have been better served dealing Gotay in the off season? Won’t Gotay’s value continue to drop as he rots away on the bench? Plus, teams know he has no value to us, so why would they trade anything of value in return?

... This kid was a former top prospect that the Royals ruined by rushing him to the bigs.

I’ve seen this same excuse used for Burgos, but I think it’s bunk. Except in a few instances, I don’t think you “ruin” kids by giving them experience in the major leagues early. If they don’t succeed at first, eventually they do or they just go back to the minors for more seasoning. No big deal. I’m not saying it never happens, just rarely. And I don’t see it in Gotay’s case.

A lot of people use that excuse to defend players who don’t play as well as expected at a young age. But for the most part it can’t be supported.

I like Gotay. But I also like Castillo. It’s a tough call from my perspective, especially since I believe Castillo was part of luring Santana to the Mets. Hopefully they keep Gotay and he can continue to get playing time in the future.

Keith, that’s an interesting question about trading Gotay. I don’t know the answer to that.

What if Castillo is on the DL for a month or two? I suppose Andy Hernandez could take over if Gotay wasn’t around, but his bat has always been putrid when facing major leaguers. Ironically, his bat this spring has been pretty good, while the announcers said his defense has slipped (I hadn’t noticed it). But it’s just ST. So his bat is likely to revert to what it’s always been. From a depth perspective, I like having Gotay around.

I do think the one guy the Mets have to worry about is Delgado. Mets a basically stuck with him. He is suppose to be hitting clean up. Instead he is just trying to clean up his health. Delgado is a power hitter vs. Castillo who is a contact hitter.

Delgado has proven to not have his old bat speed—Big time problem for a power hitter especially when your hips do a lot of the work.

“If Mets are so leary of young talent how do you explain Maine and Perez? How do you explain Joe Smith? How do you explain Register? How do you explain Gomez playing so much last yr?”

Notice I said “proven” young talent. Perez showed he could perform on the big stage, and Maine was forced into action by a ton of injuries in the rotation. He ended up pitching well, so they kept him in. Remember, Willie had a VERY quick hook on him in the postseason.

Joe Smith earned a spot out of necessity and by pitching lights out early last year. Minaya traded Bell, Ring, Lindstrom, and Owens. He let Bradford walk and Sanchez and Padilla never made it to Flushing. Smith forced his way into the conversation by pitching incredibly in the spring and in the beginning of the season.

Register is like the last man in the pen. They’re just trying to catch lightning in a bottle with him. Its a no risk/high reward type deal.

Gomez played out of necessity last year because: Beltran, Green, Alou, Endy, Milledge, and Johnson, all OFers ahead of him on the depth chart to start last year, went down with injuries at some point. Gomez played because he HAD to.

I refuse to accept any argument that is along the lines of “if “INSERT PLAYER” is so good, then how come “INSERT TEAM” gave him away for “INSERT CRAPPY PLAYER.” How come the Orioles gave up Maine for Benson? How come the Pirates gave up on Perez for Nady? Why did the Mets trade Jason Bay? Why did we trade Izzy for Billy Taylor? Why did the Red Sox trade Jeff Bagwell?

Teams misevaluate players ALL THE TIME. Especially crappy franchises like the Orioles and Royals. People get on me for being a stat head, well this is a totally observational argument. Forget Gotay’s stats. The kid can hit from the left side. He has great hands and is quick to the ball. He has a nice doubles stroke and would bring some nice pop to the 2B position. He hustles, brought a lot of energy to the lineup last year, and has good ABs. Granted he is poor defensively, but he is a good athlete and working with Alomar I am sure he could improve his footwork and improve around the bag.

And scoop, here is where a lot of people on this blog completely miss the point. Guys like Church, Gotay, etc are not great players, nor do I intend to portray them as great players. However, they are solid ballplayers who bring valuable skills to the table as cheap role players on a winning team. Average players are very valuable. A Gotay/Easley platoon would be a very productive and valuable cog. What would make it even more valuable is that it would allow Minaya to better allocate his time and significant resources to areas that were greater needs this past off season (i.e., P, OF, backup 1B, and C.)

Thanks slop. When I evaluate a player I look at a bunch of things. Stats are definitely part of the equation, but I also look at how a guy plays the game.

Take a kid like Burgos. Yeah he throws hard and has nice stuff, but he’s just a thrower. I was a much bigger fan of Heath Bell and I wish I had posted on here back then because I was a huge supporter of Bell’s.

Another good compare/contrast is Milledge/Gomez. I think Milledge will turn out to be a better ballplayer than Gomez because Milledge had more advanced baseball skills while Gomez just looked like a track star playing baseball, especially at the plate. Now Gomez could evolve how Reyes did and smooth over those rough patches, but that doesn’t happen a whole lot.

The one player who I was totally wrong about was Victor Diaz. I loved his approach at the plate and thought he had the potential to be a solid corner OF. However, he pouted when he didn’t get his way and didn’t take care of his body and he never panned out.

Huge supporters of Heath Bell don’t impress me w/their BB acumen. He threw a straight as straight can be fastball and could not get anything else over. He got rocked all the time. If you want to criticize Mets find out why no one knew how to show him to throw that nasty slider he now has which has made him a pretty good setup guy.

When/if Gotay is traded don’t be surprised that not much comes back in return. That will be a pretty good indication that everyone knows he is just a spot player. You basically agreed w/my analysis (can’t hit lefties, not good defense), but yet the guy is good? It is always possible he could improve but Willie and Alomar spent days and days working w/him and he did not

Gomez-Mets could have went w/Rickie Ledee or a host of other guys before Gomez

Maine-he was not a proven talent when he came to Mets

Perez-he looked like he was headed back to Mexico when Mets got him

Smith-he had like 2inn in Brooklyn. Certainly not proven talent.

Ring-maybe he makes poor Atl BP this yr

Lindstrom-I’ll give you this one. It was a mistake

Owens-his goofy delivery finally caught up to him as he was hurt most of last yr. Looking at Marlins ST stats, he is not even listed.

Can’t hit lefties, defense is no good, yet you tell us he (Church) is a good palyer. What’s the difference?
By the way church got a hit off a lefty reliever. The ball is on the way to Cooperstown.
Another good inning by man Joe Smith.

Bell showed a lot of promise in ‘05 only to be shuttled back and forth a million times in ‘06. He is another example of a young player the Mets jerked around.

As for those other guys, I gave you mitigating circumstances as to why the team went with those players due to their inexperience. Maine, Gomez, Perez, and Smith were all forced into duty because the team had no other options.

Scoop, did you actually watch Gotay roping doubles last year? The kid can hit from the left side, he used to be a top prospect, and is still only 25.

Its kinda hard to play when you know they are getting your ticket to AAA ready every night. Minaya gutted the entire relief corp support and the result was Mota/Sele/Schoeneweis.
The Mets getting little for Gotay if he’s gone will have nothing to do with talent. The guy has no options. Nobody’s paying high for a guy getting DFA’d soon.

Bell in 05? He stunk then too. He only became what he is now b/c Bud Black or the SD picthing coaches figured out how to get him to throw a slider for strikes. That made his fast but straight fastball better.

Never stated Church was a good player meaning that he will be a .300/25/100 guy. Just stated that you don’t like him b/c you didn’t like the trade. I stated that that was not his decision.

Gutted pen? The only guy who may have made a difference was Linstrom. Two of the others will be lucky to be on a ML roster. As I stated Bell would not have mounted to anything here unless someone could have figured out how to get him to throw that slider he throws now.

Mota. I did not like that decision. Show was ok but not for 3 yrs. They should have kept Bradford instead.

Well Scoop, we’ll agree about Bradford…...The point about gutting the pen was that Minaya left the team with no options he just dumped 4 relievers from the sytstem….He had nobody to bring up and at least try.

And I will refer to myself for a more observational Bell argument. I went to a ton of Met games in ‘05 and liked what I saw from Bell. He threw hard, went after hitters and had a great relievers mentality. I was in the stands when he came into a game against the Yanks with the bases loaded and struck out Jeter.

While he had and always will have a straight fastball, you do not trade guys who can throw as hard as he does and do not walk people. Further, he showed a tremendous work ethic losing a bunch of weight and constantly working to improve himself. The Mets were dumb to deal him.

As for Ring, he was a helluva lot cheaper than Show, and would have been a lot easier to cut if he performed like Show. Lindstrom dazzled in the futures game, earning gushing reviews from Keith Law (who is not one to gush), and Owens threw hard and had a deceptive delivery (which are two things Kevin Towers looks for when picking guys up off the scrap heap when he assembles those great bullpens.)

The bottom line is Minaya dumped 3 guys who threw hard and showed hints of promise at a time when the bullpen was very thin. Ring, who knows with that guy. I still think he could end up a LOOGY somewhere.

I never liked the trades of Bannister, Owens, and Lindstrom as they didn’t get back good value for them. And all could of helped in ‘07. But there’s no way Heath Bell would have worked out in NY, and he got plenty of opportunities to prove himself with the Mets in ‘05 and ‘06 and stunk both years.

As for BABIP, I hate using that to try to argue a pitcher should be kept around and think it’s a highly specious argument. To show just how speculative the theory is, the author of the Hardball Times article says:

... I’d be somewhat shocked if Heath Bell wasn’t back in the majors next year and much improved … He might be a bit hittable at times, but there is no way his BABIP will be as high as it was in 2005 again

Well, guess what? He was back in the majors the next year and was anything but “much improved.” And his BABIP was worse!

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what a speculative stat said. Bell didn’t get along with Peterson so it was clear he wasn’t going to thrive under his tutelage. Whether that was the reason for his pitching failures it’s hard to say. Maybe he just couldn’t execute his pitches well playing under the pressure of NY. At any rate, it’s easy to see why they gave up on him.

It is true that Bell did not walk people and had a good W/SO ratio w/the Mets. But that fact remains that he did not become a good RP until he went to SD and Bud Black or somebody else showed him how to throw a slider for strikes. In fact that slider of his is now an out picth. He went from having a non-ML level slider to a very,very good one. That is why he went from having ERA’s in the mid-5’s w/the Mets to an ERA of 2, a whip under 1 and a BAA of under .200 in 07.

He never would have achieved any of that w/the Mets b/c for whatever reason, they could not get him to throw or show him how to throw that slider.

Just b/c a guy throws 95+ does not equate to being a good ML Pitcher (see Burgos). You have got to be able to throw off speed pitches for strikes. He could not do that w/the Mets.

JK wrote, “I never liked the trades of Bannister, Owens, and Lindstrom as they didnâ€™t get back good value for them. And all could of helped in…”

It is true that they did not get back much, but only Lindstrom had/has any quality himself. I don’t think Bannister will be long term a winner. He does not have an out pitch (ie gets swings and misses and SOs). And Ownes w/his goofy delivery got himself hurt and is not even in camp w/Marlins this yr.

scoop, it’s true it’s too early to say definitely that Bannister will be a solid ML starter. But the early returns look like he might be. And, at any rate, wouldn’t he have been much better than Park or Lawrence last year? I think so.

“He never would have achieved any of that w/the Mets b/c for whatever reason, they could not get him to throw or show him how to throw that slider.”

How do you know this? This is exactly my point. The Mets don’t try to develop players. Unless you come to the bigs perfect, they ditch you first chance they get.

“Just b/c a guy throws 95+ does not equate to being a good ML Pitcher (see Burgos).”

No kidding. But still, you can’t teach a 95+ fastball, so you shouldn’t just throw away power arms like that. Especially a guy like Bell who also had control and busted his butt, or a guy like Lindstrom who looked like he was finally putting it together.

And if you think Bell had a fair shot in ‘06 you’re kidding yourself. Acela renamed the train going down to Norfolk the Heath Bell Shuttle.

... Unless you come to the bigs perfect, they ditch you first chance they get.

This is utter nonsense. Reyes didn’t come in perfect. He certainly had times when he struggled at first. Heilman struggled too. They stuck with him (as a reliever).

Bell certainly got his fair chances with the Mets in both 2005 and 2006. He was awful. He was the pitching equivalent of Andy Hernandez who could hit very well in the minors then stunk with the bat whenever he was called up.